Tempest Pyre
by belle dans bleu
Summary: Under the new Headmaster's rules, everyone's true colors are exposed.


Disclaimer: I don't own HP or anything else you recognize.

A/N: I'm looking for a beta for this story, please contact me if you're interested.

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><p>Chapter One: The New Weaselette<p>

Draco whistled quietly to himself as he walked up the fifth floor Charms corridor, his last round of patrol for the night. After this he was free to go back to the warmth and comfort of his bed in the head boy's dorm and get some well deserved beauty sleep. He growled cursing that stupid Mudblood bitch Granger for sticking him with the worst patrolling shift. "Fucking bitch." He muttered angrily clenching his fists tightly as he turned down the last stretch of the hallway. He turned around to start making his way back to his dorm when a curious sound coming from several metres behind him roused his authoritative nature, putting off on going to bed; he spun on his heel and glided back to a door that was ajar. He paused as he recognized the unfamiliar sound of someone crying.

He slid his wand from up his sleeve and eased into the room, "Lumos." The room came alive startling the crying occupant. She jumped up her wand in her trembling hand and her eyes lit with fear and pain. He recognised her as a sixth year Slytherin that usually hung out with another sixth year he knew as Peters, her name was Thompson...or something like that.

"Oh...Draco, it's just you..." She sniffed as she lowered her wand and rubbed her tear-streaked face with the wrist of her cloak avidly avoiding looking him in the eye. "I'm sorry I was out so late." She stuttered, "I-I just needed somewhere to think." She kept her head down and tilted away from him as she spoke.

"What are you doing here; most students go to the Astronomy Tower." He sneered, crossing his arms looking down his nose at her.

"I just needed a place to think." She glanced up at him with her watery blue eyes, and Draco had to take a hard gulp to refrain from something undignified slipping from his lips. The left side of the girls face was marred with deep red slash marks. Most of the scratches were still bleeding but some had started to puss over and the affect on her once smooth face was sickening. She dropped her head again at his reaction, tears slipping from her eyes then took off running out the door, roughly pushing past him.

"Wait!" Draco tried to grab her, but she slipped from his grasp and kept going, sobbing hysterically. Draco jogged after her, intent on getting answers when he heard the pounding of shoes going in the other direction that he was chasing the girl. He changed course, putting the other Slytherin to the back his mind; he quickened his pace to catch up with the other student. However, the other student remained elusive, always turning down hallways before he could break around a corner. "Stop!" He thundered, but the person doubled their speed. As he turned a corner he saw a sliver of red waves disappeared into a girls' bathroom.

"Weasley," he sneered banging on the bathroom door. "Get out here!"

He waited a few moments before the door was opened and she-Weasley looked up at him, a bored expression on her face.

"Malfoy." She drawled.

"What are you doing out of bed at this hour?" He sneered towering over her.

"The same thing you're doing." She flashed her Head Prefect badge, "And lucky for me, my patrol is over. So if you'll excuse me." She slid past him, a smug smirk playing on her lips, "I've got a date with a four poster bed and I just can't keep him waiting." She sauntered away, her hips swaying with every step. "Good night Malfoy." She called mockingly before making her way to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Get a move on!" Draco hissed at the first year that crashed into him as he rounded the corner. The young boy looked up at him with his face drawn in horror and awe before scuttling away. He shook his head balefully and kept on his way to the Great Hall; it was a Saturday afternoon and he was heading to grab a late lunch before the food disappeared. As he was getting closer to the Entrance Hall he saw a small gathering of people intently looking in spotting his friends, Blaise and Daphne he made his way over to them.

"What's happening?" He asked, looking over people's heads so he could get a better look at the two sixth years that were staring each other down. He recognised the brunette from his house as Margery Peters, a tall girl with the build, beauty and grace for a beater. Her opponent, to his surprise, was Ginny Weasley.

"I don't know." Daphne shrugged shouldering past schoolmates to lead them to the front. "We just got here."

"Make way for the head boy." The blond commanded.

"Why don't you just look away Peters?" Taunted the short red-head Gryffindor; a vicious smirk on her face.

"Go to hell Weasley." Peters growled back taking a step to the side.

Weasley folded her arms, "Staring at your hideous face is hell enough." Several people snickered and nodded in agreement at her comment. "So why don't you go tottering back to the rock you crawled from and do us all a favour." She retorted snidely.

Peters' brown eyes blazed at the dig and her hand twitched for her wand that was tucked away. In the blink of an eye, Peters was on the floor clutching her face, screaming in agony. The circle collectively jumped back in surprise, with the expectation of her friends, who flocked to her side to try and calm her down and assess the damage, after a few long minutes, one of her friends jumped back with a shriek staring at her face with abject disgust. Draco recognised her as the crying girl from the night prior; expect the gut wrenchingly disgusting marks were gone.

The crowd moved back closer to get a good look at what the girl was staring at; growing from Peters face were four thick purple tentacles. Two sprouted from her forehead and two on her chin. At once, everyone burst out laughing once they got a clear view of her distract face. Draco couldn't help himself as he laughed whole-heartedly. Peters looked around the assembled circle, her face growing red with embarrassment and much to her ever mounting chagrin, a spurt of ink shot from her mouth and landed on some people's shoes. She glared nastily at Weasley, who was smirking at her- wand dangling between her pale freckled fingers, and took off running, pushing through the student body and heading to the infirmary. The circle broke up as people dashed away to tell their friends who had left lunch earlier. Weasley smirked and slapped five with her group of friends, before they all walked away.

Daphne grinned, "That was spectacular! Bloody hell Weasley's fast, I didn't even see her grab for her wand."

"It's amusing to see them go at it. Weasley's got quite the mouth of her." Blaise chuckled as they stood, in the hall.

Draco's thoughts were swirling around his head pondering on the events from just now and last night. Had Weasley marred that girls face like that? If so, how was she able to get past him when he entered the room? He had turned the lights on and had failed to notice another person in the room; maybe she had sneaked out when he was preoccupied.

"What's on your mind Draco?" Daphne asked clueing in on the deep look on concentration on the blonds' face.

"I encountered the oddest thing last night," He looked around the hall and stepped closer to his friends and told them about the bizarre happenings of last night.

"Are you saying Weasley could have done that?" Blaise scoffed, "She's a Gryffindor and they don't torture people."

Draco shrugged, "But it makes sense, Weasley and Peters fight so often, perhaps she tortured the other girl to get back at Peters?"

"That's possible. Peters and Thompson are an item, and I heard Peters asks Thompson to do a lot of her dirty work." Daphne tapped her cheek in contemplation. "I'll ask Anderson to gather some information."

"Where were you for lunch mate?" Blaise asked changing the subject as a few Hufflepuffs walked past them.

"I was finishing up my potions essay." The blond retorted.

Blaise groaned as he slapped his hand against his forehead. "I still haven't started that yet."

Daphne scoffed, "What have you been doing? Snape gave us that assignment almost a week ago."

Blaise shrugged, "I've been busy."

She raised a slender eyebrow in question and he just grinned back at her. She shook her head and patted Draco's shoulder, "You should probably hurry."

He nodded and waved good-bye before going into the Great Hall and sitting at the Slytherin table. There were a few students still at their respective tables, some were still eating, but the majority were discussing the Weasley/Peters incident. Draco rolled his eyes and started to pile his plate with food.

Ginny sat in the library pouring over a large book in front of her. She groaned as she flipped back a few pages, divination was the world's most useless subject. She didn't know what the hell possessed her to take the course, but she was deeply regretting it. "Ugh," she groaned again as she flipped back to the previous page. '_None of this shit makes sense!'_ she thought exasperatedly.

"Need help?" She looked up from the page to the smiling face of an older brunette.

"No thanks." She muttered, turning her attention back to the book on the table. From the corner of her eyes, she could see the brunette craning her neck to look at the text in her book. "Do you mind?" She asked lifting her head to glare at the obviously daft girl pulling the book closer to her body. Some people couldn't take a damn hint...

The girl giggled and pulled a chair out from across the table to sit with her. "I'm very good at Divinations, I promise. What assignment is that?"

"I don't want your help." Ginny snapped, giving the girl a glare she usually reserved for her brothers. But the girl rolled her eyes and reached out for the parchment that sat next to the book, perusing the few paragraphs that were written down.

"You're using the wrong book." She said.

"What?" Ginny scoffed, flicking the book closed in disgust, "You've got to be kidding me."

She shook her head and slid the scroll back to the red-head "You needed the book next to this one."

"That bitch." She sneered, clenching her fists, the next time she saw Lavender Brown she would jinx her. Several ideas of revenge traipsed through her mind and she smirked in satisfaction, Lavender would pay dearly for making her waste her day in the library.

"I'm Daphne." The girl grinned, her green eyes twinkling in mirth.

"Ginny." The red-head leaned across the table and they shook hands briefly. "What house are you in?"

"Slytherin."

Ginny stared at her blankly, "Why would a Slytherin want to help me? Obviously you know who I am." She pointedly tugged on her red plaits.

Daphne shrugged, "I saw what you did to Peters. What spell was that?"

"Something my brothers made up." The red-head leaned back in her chair, analysing the Slytherin; she seemed trustworthy enough, her eyes reflected a type of honesty not found within the house of snakes, but still she kept her guard up.

Daphne looked impressed, "It was brilliant. I heard Peters will be in the infirmary until Tuesday because they had to hack off the tentacles and let her skin re-grow."

Ginny snickered, "I thought Slytherins were loyal to each other."

The older girl flipped her hair over her shoulder and replied arrogantly, "We're loyal to _some._ Not all of them _deserve_ loyalty."

Ginny nodded and the two girls fell into a comfortable silence.

"Gin, there you are, I've been looking all over for you!" They turned in surprise as Ron appeared next to the table the two girls were sharing, his attention only on his sister.

"I told you, I was going to be studying." She said, rolling her eyes.

"That was hours ago," He whined, sitting down next to Daphne. "I'm ready to go play a few rounds of quidditch." He froze once he noticed her wide-eyed gaze, he narrowed his eyes as recognition filtered thru his mind, "What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you are, Weasley." She snapped haughtily, coming out of her reverie. "Hanging out with that mudblood is killing your brain cells." Ginny snorted and covered her mouth as a chuckle escaped her lips.

Ron's face went red, and he stood up angrily glaring down at the brunette. "Don't talk about Hermione that way! She's the smartest witch of our year."

"Yes, yes, and all that rut." Daphne stood also, placing her hands on her hips. "I'll see you around Ginny." She winked at the other girl and left without another look at duo.

"What were you doing hanging out with her anyways?" Ron asked, after he had calmed down. "You know she's an evil death eater, right?"

"Whatever, it's none of your business." She rolled up the scroll and tossed it into her bag, leaving the useless book on the table, "Come on I'm ready to go." Ron gave her a strange look, but knew better than to keep pushing the topic.


End file.
